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Hello! I hope you all had a lovely weekend! We had our annual family get-together. Since I had won several jewelry making kits from Craft Fantastic, after lunch I did a make-n-take with the 25+ gals. What fun we had! It was easy and everyone was tickled pink to go home with a nice necklace, bracelet, ring or magnet that they’d made themselves. Here are just a few of the finished products:

Thank you Craft Fantastic… You were the highlight of our get together this year! I highly recommend their quality product and it makes a terrific group activity!

D.Ann

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I’m pleased to present today’s crafting whim… beaded tie chains. In our family they’re called: ‘jibby-dabby dibby-dabbies’… Even when I lived at home, dad could never remember what they’re called and was always losing them… “Hon, have you seen my jibby-dabby dibby dabby?” And mom usually knew were to find it! So the name stuck. Dad likes to use tie chains, but they’re so boring. Either gold or silver and that’s pretty much it. S,o I decided to do some makeovers for him.

It’s easy to remove the chain from an inexpensive tie chain and then attach a string of beads to the base. I used Beadalon 7 strand .18″ satin silver wire with #1 crimp beads and I chose some semiprecious ‘manly’ natural stone beads for him…

Hildy and Jo hematite beads are classy and go with most anything.

He has started wearing more purple, so I put together this set of Bead Gallery Amethyst Serpentine Jasper beads.

And here’s one I made a while back from Bead Gallery peacock and camouflage jasper stones.

Of course, he mixes them up with colors I never would have thought of… and they’re not too bad. : )

Well, there you have it… an idea to jazz up your guy’s tie chains.

Thanks for stopping by today!

~D.Ann

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p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

Hello, everyone! My name is Mary C. of WireAndWings.com and D.Ann is letting me take over her blog today as Guest Designer. D.Ann and I have been friends for over 30 years and now we live in neighboring cities. I love making jewelry and since D.Ann and I share a love of Cats and Sci-fi. I recently made this Cats In Space Bib Statement Necklace for her as a surprise gift.

That was when she invited me to come to her blog and tell you about it since my website is currently undergoing transformation and the blog is under construction, too. We decided the Cat Lovers Hop would be a perfect time for this post.

Let’s take a closer look at the piece…

I know! Right?!! The first thing most folks want to know is: ‘How is it held together?’ Well, let’s turn it over and take a look:

I start with a heavy gauge wire frame, hammered to make it stiff. That gives a base to attach the pieces by wire wrapping them to it.

Here are some more process pics:

After I make the base, I start by laying out the larger pieces.

Then I start wire wrapping them in and adding the smaller pieces until I’m satisfied.

Now, let’s look closer at some of the individual pieces…

We start with a space ship rocketing into the galaxy of stars – with planets and nebulae throughout. Why some of the planets even have water! And there’s even a cat in the moon. (I thought it was supposed to be “the cat’s in the cradle and a silver spoon,” not ‘on a silver moon’…” hmmm…) You know why there had to be a cat put on the moon? Otherwise, the mouse would’ve eaten the last little sliver! (You can read a fun article about why people say the the moon is made of cheese HERE.)

Interesting cat fact: Did you know there actually was an Astrocat?! Her name was Félicette and she went into space 54 years ago the 18th of this month. Google “Cat in Space” and you can read all about her.

Getting back to our necklace – let’s take a look at the other side:

Here we have our Doctor Who references… the Dalek on the timepiece, the sonic screwdriver, a gorgeous ‘nebula,’ a bit of Gallefreyan writing. a key to memory – and, is that, perhaps, the lost moon of Poosh?!!

Finally, there’s the clasp…

Dangling from the handmade clasp is a star, a cyberman and my brand insignia. And, there you have it… the one-of-a-kind Cats in Space Bib Statement Necklace!

Thank you, D.Ann, for letting me take over your blog for this post! And thank you, sweet visitors, for your kind attention. I invite you to come visit my current website (wireandwings.com) and feel free to stop by my Etsy store. You can get to either by clicking on any of the highlighted words. I’m offering a special 15% discount code to Cat Lovers Hoppers: CATHOP15 – It will be valid until Oct 31, 2017.